


Family, Duty, Honor

by kitlee625



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-11
Updated: 2015-10-11
Packaged: 2018-04-25 20:31:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4975483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitlee625/pseuds/kitlee625
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After her father’s accident, May rushes to his bedside and contemplates everything that has brought them here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family, Duty, Honor

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from the Tully family motto from Game of Thrones. I thought it fit Melinda May and this story in particular.
> 
> Thanks as always to Sarahastro for her help in writing this story.

It is impossible to get a direct flight from Maui to Phoenix on such short notice. May knows that if she were to ask Coulson, he would send a S.H.I.E.L.D. jet to pick her up as soon as possible, but she resists the urge to make the call. Until she knows more about what has happened to her father, it is imperative to her that her travels be under the radar.

She has a layover at LAX, and while she is waiting, she notices a payphone. Even if she does not want his help, she knows that she owes Coulson at least some explanation before she slips off the grid. It takes a few minutes for the call to connect to his office, and when he answers, he sounds immediately suspicious.

“Who is this?”

“Coulson, it’s me.”

“May.” Suspicion turns to relief. “Where are you? How’s the vacation?”

The memory of how she left things with Andrew only a few days earlier is still raw and painful, but she keeps her voice level as she answers, “Fine.”

“When are you coming back?” 

May can hear a note of desperation creep into his voice with those words, and she frowns. “What happened?”

“Simmons is missing. She -- the Monolith did something to her May -- we haven’t figured it out yet, but it seemed to swallow her whole. Fitz and Bobbi and Weaver are working on it, but they don’t have any idea what’s happened to her, or if she’s even still alive --”

She feels a pang of guilt for not rushing back to the base, but she knows that she has to stick to her original plan. “I’m not coming back,” May says abruptly.

Coulson falls silent for a good minute before he asks, “What do you mean, you’re not coming back?” She does not answer. “You have to come back, May. You’re a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Simmons is missing, and there’s something happening out there, reports of people with powers. S.H.I.E.L.D. needs you. I need you.”

May shakes her head. For such a long time, nothing has mattered more to her than her duty to S.H.I.E.L.D., her duty to Coulson. But now she has something more important to take care of. “I can’t,” she says and hangs up the phone.

*****

It is nearly midnight by the time May gets to the ICU. The lights are dimmed, and the unit is eerily quiet. There are only two nurses sitting at the front desk, and they point her towards her father’s room.

Her heart catches in her throat when she sees her father lying there. He looks so old and fragile, a far cry from the active, independent man that she knows. His face is scraped and badly bruised, and a plastic tube juts out of his mouth, connecting him to a breathing machine that hums and sighs. His room is full of machines, breathing for him, pumping medicines into him, and it scares her to see him so helpless and dependent.

A doctor knocks on the sliding glass door and enters without waiting for a response. “Ms. May? I’m the doctor on call tonight. Do you have any questions?”

“What happened to him?”

“He was hit by a car. The impact fractured his hip and caused internal bleeding. We managed to stop it, but we had to remove his spleen. Right now he’s stable, but we’ll need to watch him closely. In a few days, we’ll take him back to the operating room to make sure that there’s no more bleeding.”

“When will he wake up?”

“He’ll be sedated until we know that there’s no more bleeding. A few more days at least.”

After the doctor leaves, May pulls a chair close to her father’s bed and settles in. She takes his hand and squeezes it, but it remains limp and unresponsive. Still, just in case he can still hear her through the fog of all the sedatives, she murmurs, “It’s me, Dad. I’m right here, and I’m not going anywhere.”

*****

The next morning, May is awoken when a police officer comes by to check on her father.

“How is he doing?”

May shrugs. There has been no change since her arrival, but she does not know if that is good or bad. “Have you found whoever did this to him?”

“Are you family?” the officer asks.

“His daughter.”

The officer looks uncomfortable. “I’m sorry about your father’s accident. We’re following up on some leads, but unfortunately no one got a good look at the car that did this.” He frowns. “Do you know of anyone who would want to deliberately hurt your father?”

May does not believe for a moment that her father’s injury is just an accident, but she is not about the tell the police that. It is not exactly Ward’s style to hit an old man with his car, but she would not put it past him to go after the one she loves. At least her mother can take care of herself. But if Ward is the one behind all this, there is no point in getting the police involved. They will not be able to stop him and besides, this is between her and Ward.

May shakes her head. “No.”

*****

Days go by, and May does not leave her father’s side for more than a few minutes at a time. When she eats, it is in the hospital cafeteria, and when she sleeps, it is on a cot next to her father’s bed. The social worker offers to help her find a hotel near the hospital where she can stay, but May just stares blankly at her until the woman leaves.

The doctors assure her that her father is making progress, but to May’s eyes, nothing changes. He still looks impossibly frail, unresponsive, and completely dependent on the life support machines to stay alive. But they smile and point to stable blood counts and improving electrolytes, and each day tell her that they are getting closer and closer to being able to wake him up.

Finally, on his fourth day in the ICU, they announce that he is stable enough that they can take him back to the OR for a second look surgery.

“It’s completely routine,” the doctor assures her. “We’ll make sure that he’s healing nicely from the first surgery and then close him up. Once that’s done, we’ll be able to lighten his sedation and wake him up.”

She feels uneasy about sending him back to surgery, but the doctor is so cheerful and calm that she lets herself believe that her father is truly going to be okay. While he is in the OR, she even leaves the hospital and walks around the block. It feels good to get a breath and fresh air and feel the warmth of the sun.

The street is empty, and after days of being surrounded by doctors and nurses all the time, it is nice to have a few moments of peace and quiet. She is halfway around the building when she notices footsteps following her, but as soon as she turns to see who it is, the person bolts and disappears back around the corner. Instinctively, she chases, but whoever it is manages to disappear before she can catch a glimpse of more than a brown jacket.

*****

When she gets back to the ICU, they are just wheeling her father back from the OR. The surgery has gone well, so well that they have already turned off his sedation and removed the breathing tube. He is blinking his eyes and, and for the first time in days, when she squeezes his hand, he squeezes back, and that tiny response brings tears to her eyes.

Just then, her cellphone rings. It is Coulson again. She lets the call go to voicemail just like she did the other three times he called. She does not want to argue about returning to base, or to hear a speech about her duty to S.H.I.E.L.D. She used to believe that her place was with S.H.I.E.L.D. and Coulson, but over the past few months she has been questioning where she truly belongs. For a while, she thought that her place might be with Andrew, but after their trip to Maui, she was left feeling more adrift than ever. Until now. Now she knows where she needs to be. Her father would never have been hurt if not for her.

His voice is hoarse from disuse, and it takes her a moment to realize that he is calling her name. She squeezes his hand tighter.

“It’s okay, Dad. I’m right here.” She gives him a small smile. “You don’t have to worry. I’m right here, and I’m not going anywhere,” she promises.


End file.
